Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Poetic Obituaries: I visited Geof [Geoffrey Eggleston] at a run-down

Koori rehab centre in Brunswick in Melbourne's poetry belt. In the unspeakable gloom of his sepulchral tomb I tried to make him laugh, but he was too far gone. Unheralded, he single-handedly organised the annual Mont Salvat poetry festival at Eltham, where hundreds of T.S. Eliots live only for poeticised sermons and getting their end in.

He attracted the best readers aloud. Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Alan Ginsberg came, and declaimed to great acclaim. Geof must have felt vindicated when poetry lovers clapped their brains out for the thrill of witnessing the cutting-edge of concrete poetry and lyrical poetry previously heard only on radio. Yet the Australia Council never gave Geof a buck.

from The Land: Poetic justice? None in a country that shuts its ears to the word

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3 comments :

Wheel Spin Media said...

Gday mate, when did Geoff die? I heard he was crook but didn't hear thing from anyone. Lets know, my email address is charlessbayer@gmail.com
best Charles.

Rus Bowden said...

Hi Charles,


A Wikipedia article says December 2, 2008:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Eggleston


Yours,

Rus

Stool Pidgeon said...

Well that was to the point.
Nathaniel Eggleston. No one had any idea only those who loved him. That room on the Merri creek in which he spent his last days was meters from where he played as child. And he was happiest with the black fellers.